Go Buy or Rent the MARSHALL Movie Today – and Contact your Delegate and Senator and ask them to VOTE YES on the Statewide Indigent Defense Bill!

The recent MARSHALL movie came out last Tuesday and I of course bought it and it arrived last Friday!  The movie is about a 1940 trial set in Connecticut of an African-American falsely accused of raping a white woman.  it’s great.  I always admire the guy or gal who stands up to the system for a good cause.  See the movie today!

Now being a Thurgood Marshall admirer, (he did so much to lay down the legal basis against Jim Crow and legal segregation/discrimination in the US) I enjoyed this movie very much – probably in part since it exposes racism in the North – no South bashing.  In fact the forewoman of the jury that acquits the defendant (I do not know if she is a real person) but she is portrayed as a Southerner who could be fair to blacks.

But Marshall makes a short speech in front of the courthouse where he says blacks do not get the equal protection of the laws (Here it is on YouTube) and alas he was right in 1940 (and maybe not today, either, some would argue) and this inspired me to write this blog post

BUT

Now we have in Virginia a situation that verges on the denial of the equal protection of the laws, depending on where an indigent is charged with a crime.  If he or she is charged in Wise County, or Prince William County or Hanover County or Floyd County – yes there are fine, even excellent attorneys to be appointed in all those places.  BUT there is an institutional advantage in favor of public defender offices – they have support staff, investigators, legal “specialists” on appeals, juvenile court matters and sentencing/mitigation.  This is at least the potential for an equal protection violation.  The Sixth Amendment is too critical for its protections to be based on what court you are accused of a crime in.

We need a statewide public defender system WITH a appellate division.  Del. Rasoul has introduced a bill to do exactly that.  HB 1296.  Here it is.

Here is how to contact your delegate and/or senator.  It would be consonant with the spirit of Martin Luther King Day to agitate for justice and righteousness and support this bill.